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TURBO (Blu-ray combo)

November 16, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Animation, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

TurbocoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes
2013, 96 min., Color
Rated PG for some mild and thematic elements
DreamWorks Animation
Aspect ratio:  2.35:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, UV Digital HD copy
Bonus features:  C
Trailer

In a familiar premise, Turbo (Ryan Reynolds) wants more out of life than what his biological limitations or station in life will allow. His is the same spirit that made man want to fly—only this fellow would probably settle for a good crisp walking pace.

Turbo is a snail that happens to be a huge racing fan, especially of the Indy 500 and perennial winner Guy Gagné (Bill Hader). The arrogant Gagné mugs for cameras and says all the right things to stay in the spotlight, including the kind of inspirational dream-big quotes that fill Turbo’s head with fantastic ideas that he can somehow become faster than he is.

That kind of thinking can you killed, and it takes his brother (Paul Giamatti) to save him from the blades of a lawn mower when a test “sprint” puts him in danger.

So how do you have a story about a snail who dreams of speed turn into something other than a downer? Of course you have a Spider-Man type of transformation, where nitrous oxide (yep, laughing gas) somehow boosts Turbo’s power the way, in liquid form, it sometimes increases the power of racing engines.

What an increase! Turbo now can move at such a pace that all you see is a blue streak. But what a far-fetched journey he takes to realize his dream! Of course this snail will be discovered at a snail race run by a half-partner in a taco business, and sure he’ll somehow communicate to this guy that he wants to race in the Indy 500, so why wouldn’t this kindly Mexican try to officially enter him in the race? And why wouldn’t the world watch this freakish phenomenon with grand interest?  More

SHREK THE MUSICAL (Blu-ray combo)

October 31, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, Musical, PG rated Leave a comment

ShrektheMusicalcoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes
2012, 130 min., Color
Rated PG for some rude humor and adult talk
Dreamworks-Fox
Aspect ratio:  1.78:1
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, UV copy
Bonus features: C-
Trailer

Since most people can’t get to a Broadway play, watching a filmed performance like Shrek the Musical is the closest they’ll come.

Tightly framed and with numerous close-ups and medium shots, Shrek the Musical makes you feel as if you’ve got a front-row seat. Because those close-ups and quick cuts from camera to camera are the only ways in which the filmmakers can bring a sense of the cinematographic to the production, it would have been tempting to go overboard. But fans of theater can rest assured that there are plenty of long shots that capture the full spectacle.

Like The Lion King, the plot of this musical is so familiar that any real variety depends upon the casting decisions, the performances, and the costuming and props.

Open your Playbill and you’ll see that the Broadway cast features Brian d’Arcy (Smash, Game Change) as Shrek, Sutton Foster (Bunheads) as Fiona, Christopher Sieber (Two of a Kind) as Lord Farquaad, and Daniel Breaker (Limitless) as Donkey.

I’m not surprised that the musical won a Tony for costuming. When the guards or the fairy tale characters crowd the stage it’s the kind of colorful extravaganza that attracts families to shows like this. But I wasn’t terribly impressed with the design or choreography of the dragon. In fact, as with The Lion King, I much prefer the animated version.  More

THE CROODS (Blu-ray combo)

October 11, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

CroodscoverGrade:  B+
Entire family:  Yes
Rated PG for “some scary action”
Dreamsworks Animation
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, UV copy
Trailer

Dreamworks Animation has really been pushing Pixar lately, and they’ve done it again with “The Croods.” There are eye-popping allusions to “Avatar” and jaw-dropping sequences of cataclysmic clouds of rubble that rival any of the animation we’ve seen recently. Watching in HD especially, you come away from this caveman comedy feeling slightly awestruck by the visuals.

Pixar still leads in the department of narrative invention, though, as “The Croods” tells a familiar story of a teenage girl who wants to “break out” and lead a life apart from the cocoon-like existence her father has designed. When a boy her age comes into the picture, Dad responds to the threat with all the warmth of a saber-toothed tiger who has a thorn in his paw. His little girl is HIS little girl, and he’s not about to let that change.

But change is on the menu in “The Croods,” which is set in a fictional Pliocene era known as the “Croodaceous” period—a transitional time in the history of the earth when flaming asteroid showers, erupting volcanoes, and shifting geological planes tear the earth apart and thrust mountain ranges high above what used to be an ocean floor. And humans are ready to take a big (comic) step forward in the evolutionary chain.  More

HIS MAJESTY O’KEEFE (DVD)

September 5, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

HisMajestyO'KeefecoverGrade:  C+
Entire family:  Yes, but . . .
1954, 90 min., Color
Not rated (would be PG for some violence)
Warner Bros. Archive Collection
Aspect ratio:  1.37:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital Mono
Bonus features: D
Trailer

South Seas. Romance. Those words are almost synonymous, and in His Majesty O’Keefe, a 1954 semi-swashbuckler starring the acrobatic Burt Lancaster, all the color of the islands bursts onto the screen.

Narrated in voiceover by the main character, a 19th-century Yankee sea captain who is determined to get his share of the lucrative copra (dried coconut) market, His Majesty O’Keefe will remind literature students a little bit of Conrad’s Lord Jim or Melville’s heroes from Typee or Omoo. It’s the story of an adventurer’s exploits in an exotic land where beautiful native girls are as plentiful as the islands’ other resources, and dangers lurk not with the elements, but with potentially hostile indigenous people. In the ‘50s, or even a generation ago, that would have been enough to hold the interest of most families. After all, here was a chance to see Fiji (it was filmed mostly on the island of Vitu Levu), and producer Harold Hecht and director Byron Haskin featured real islanders in the film.

But today’s families can just go to Google Earth if they want to see Fiji, and they’re so used to seeing violence and dazzling special effects in action movies that the clashes in this film will seem not-so-adventurous—especially the one-on-one fights where punches that look like glancing blows send a man toppling in a series of backward somersaults. His Majesty O’Keefe has an old-fashioned movie vibe, and the “native” dress and dances suggest more than a touch of Hollywood. So how your family will respond to this depends on how they respond to old-time Hollywood films.   More

EPIC (Blu-ray combo)

August 22, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

EpiccoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes
2013, 102 min., Color
Rated PG for mild action, some scary images and brief rude language
Twentieth Century Fox Animation
Aspect ratio:  2.40:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 7.1
Bonus features:  C-
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, DigitalHD Copy
Trailer

The plot of Epic will strike older family members as yet another mythic kingdom structure, where a world (like Narnia, for example) is dependent upon the balance between good and evil, or at least evil being kept in check. When evil surges and suddenly poses a more urgent threat to the future of all life, hope lies in a chosen one or a youngling or budding new emblem of goodness that needs to be protected until such time as the Good One can assume his/her/its rightful position, and balance (or at least the illusion of it) can be restored.

After her mother passes away, teen Mary-Kate (Amanda Seyfried) comes to live with her eccentric and estranged father, Prof. Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), whose singleminded drive to prove the existence of miniature forest warriors created a distance between him and his family. But after M.K., as she prefers to be called, is magically miniaturized, she learns her father was right all along—that the Leaf Men he sought really do exist, and they ride hummingbirds as they battle the forces of evil in a forest nearby the professor’s Victorian house.

Epic was inspired by a children’s book intended for ages 3-8—The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, by William Joyce—but many scenes also evoke Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The plot is just good enough to get by, and the energy level and forward movement are sufficient to hold even the most easily distracted child’s attention. But the film’s chief strength lies in its depiction of a new and exotic world and appreciating how Fox animators envisioned and created such a world.

Epic is epically gorgeous in its art design and animation.   More

STANDING UP (Blu-ray combo)

August 17, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Drama, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

StandingUpwebcoverGrade:  C+
Entire family:  Yes (but it’s slow)
2013, 93 min., Color
Rated PG for thematic elements including bullying and for brief smoking and language
Arc Entertainment
Aspect ratio:  16×9
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  D
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Vudu digital copy
Trailer

Standing Up is D.J. Caruso’s film adaptation of The Goats, a popular juvenile novel by Brock Cole that’s been among the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books, according to the American Library Association. I can see why.

Standing Up tells the story of a cruel tradition at a summer camp that has boys luring the weakest among them to an island, then stripping him naked and leaving him there for a while. The girls at camp do the same thing to one of their own—or rather, the one who fits in the least. Marooned most often are the geeks, the nerds, the misfits, the kids who would be made fun, bullied, or shunned during the school year by a different group of insensitive “cool” kids. Camp counselors look the other way so this “tradition” can continue, but this year’s “goats” feel so humiliated and hurt by their experience that they go on the run instead of waiting to be picked up again and taken back to camp.

“Standing up” implies standing up to bullies, which is a brave but not always healthy thing to do. Running is more practical, but not terribly empowering. Also, there’s a single incident when the pre-teen boy comes to the rescue of his companion, yet that involves a blindsided leg sweep like the bad guys did to The Karate Kid. It’s not terribly noble, and in fact strikes me as something a bully might do.

The two kids become to an extent, outlaws on the run, and they model behavior that isn’t exactly what you’d want your kids to do:  they lie, they steal, they scam their way into a motel, and they tell other kids they meet along the way that their names are Bonnie and Clyde—so their lawlessness didn’t escape the author. Yet, curiously, Standing Up proudly bears the Dove Family Seal of Approval. Maybe that’s because of a tone that more closely resembles an indie film than a crime drama, and because Grace (Annalise Basso) and Howie (Chandler Canterbury) are more desperate than they are desperadoes.  More

SHANE (Blu-ray)

July 30, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, PG rated, Western 2 Comments

ShanecoverGrade:  A-
Entire family:  Yes (with an asterisk)
1953, 118 min., Color
Unrated (would be PG)
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio:  1.37:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 2.0
Bonus features:  C+
Trailer 

Jack Schaefer’s 1949 novel has been credited for helping the Western make the leap from pulp fiction aimed at youngsters to serious adult fiction. It also established the formula for countless movies and TV series, and I can’t think of a better “starter” Western to introduce youngsters to the genre.

That’s because in Shane (1953), as in the book, we see the action through the eyes of a young boy  (Brandon De Wilde), and the lad’s hero worship is nicely balanced by underlying issues that families can use for discussion. That point of view also creates a gap between Joey’s understanding of the situation and the audience’s. To Joey (Bob, in the book), whose father has taught him that guns and violence are to be avoided, Shane and his pearl-handled .45 seem heroic. The audience realizes that one reason Shane decides to stay and work as a hired hand is that he’s weary of the gunslinger’s life and wishes he could have what that family has—a point that’s driven home when it’s made clear  the farmer’s wife has her own attraction for the handsome stranger. But when he gets caught up in a simmering range war, any hopes of settling down are threatened.

I’m giving it an asterisk for family viewing because of the violence—tame by Western standards, but violent nonetheless. There are two main fistfights that establish the character of homesteader Joe Starrett (Van Hefflin) and Shane (Alan Ladd), a mysterious stranger who’s awfully jumpy and good with a gun. There’s also a close-range shooting by a hired gun (Jack Palance) and a climactic gun battle in a darkened saloon. For the most part, though, it’s a case of rising tensions between cattlemen and farmers.   More

LOVE ME TENDER (Blu-ray)

July 27, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater PG rated, Western Leave a comment

LoveMeTendercoverGrade:  B-
Entire family:  No
1956, 89 min., Black-and-white
Unrated (would be PG)
20th Century Fox
Aspect ratio:  2.35:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  B-
Trailer

In November 1956, Love Me Tender introduced Elvis Presley as an actor. By that time he had already made his TV debut as a performer on Louisiana Hayride, singles like “That’s All Right” were playing nationwide, and his live shows were causing riots. Elvis’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (performing “Love Me Tender”) on September 9 had exposed him to 60 million viewers, most of whom would be curious to see this rock ‘n’ roll phenomenon on the big screen.

Though Elvis didn’t get top billing, the studio featured the 21 year old on the movie poster with his guitar, and Love Me Tender did well at the box office. It’s an above-average Western, but maybe only slightly—something that’s clear if you can mentally remove Elvis from the picture.

Without The King, Love Me Tender is a decent horse opera that has more stand-and-talk moments than shoot-‘em-ups. It’s slow in spots, and that plus black-and-white will be enough to put off younger family members. But Elvis really does add interest.

The screenplay comes from Robert Buckner (Dodge City), yet there’s considerably more melodrama here than in that classic Western. What else can there be when the film’s main focus is a romantic triangle involving suppressed love?   More

GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (Blu-ray)

July 24, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG rated Leave a comment

GreystokecoverGrade:  B-
Entire family:  No
1984, 137 min., Color
Rated PG (but should be PG-13)
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  C

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan was made in 1984 but feels older than that, partly because Warner Bros. didn’t go out on a limb to clean it up—there’s considerable grain—and partly because of the costuming and the way it was shot. Now it’s being made available through the Archive Collection on Blu-ray, but families beware. This PG movie from the ‘80s is most definitely a PG-13 movie now.

If you have children who would be traumatized by Old Yeller, then they probably wouldn’t want to watch a baby gorilla die, or any number of other gorillas, or people, for that matter. With Greystoke, director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) stays closer to the original Edgar Rice Burroughs story than anyone else in Hollywood, opting for a naturalistic treatment of a boy being raised by apes. That means we see a very little boy interacting with some pretty mean apes and being as nude as he was when an ape graphically kills the lad’s surviving parent to give his grieving mate a baby to replace her own.

It also means that the boy’s full nudity continues through his early teen years—though the director is careful to shoot mostly from the rear so that only a hint of anything dangling is shown. Still, the violence, nudity and naturalistic treatment will be enough to rule it out as a viable family movie unless the children are in their mid-teens.   More

HOW THE WEST WAS WON: SEASON 1 (DVD)

July 9, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG rated Leave a comment

HowtheWestwasWoncoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  No
1976-77, 398 min. (counting pilot), Color
Would be PG for some violence
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio:  1.33:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital Mono
Bonus features:  Pilot movie

Westward expansion and the American pioneer experience have always been romanticized, and with good reason. Even more than the American Revolution, it’s our national founder’s myth, with pioneers embodying the kind of traits and characteristics that our country values—things like stoicism, toughness, risk-taking, candor, and a can-do attitude.

All of that is present and accounted for in How the West Was Won, a 1977 TV Western that gave James Arness a chance to immortalize another Western character after his Marshal Dillon and Gunsmoke ended their 20-year run.

How the West Was Won didn’t last nearly as long, but it’s not for lack of quality. Arness is both believable and likable as a grizzled old mountain man who comes to visit his brother’s family at the beginning of the Civil War and ends up guiding them westward through Indian country to the Pacific Northwest.  More

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